1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a waste toner transfer device, a waste toner cleaning device having the waste toner transfer device, and a developing unit having the waste toner cleaning device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus has a photoconductive medium cleaning unit to remove waste toner residue from a photoconductive medium.
The photoconductive medium cleaning unit includes a scraper to physically scrape toner off of the surface of the photoconductive medium, and a waste toner collecting portion to collect waste toner scraped off of the photoconductive medium surface by the scraper. The waste toner collecting portion has a waste toner transfer device to convey waste toner without generating toner lumps.
The waste toner transfer device includes a waste toner conveyance, and a cam driving unit to shake the waste toner conveyance. The waste toner conveyance has a plurality of passing holes to break up lumps of waste toner. The cam driving unit shakes waste toner conveyance, preventing waste toner from being lumped on the waste toner conveyance.
The waste conveyance is usually reciprocated in a direction perpendicular to the direction of waste toner. Accordingly, the waste toner conveyance functions to prevent waste toner from lumping on the waste toner conveyance or to break up lumped waste toner, rather than functioning to transfer waste toner to the waste toner collecting portion.
In the above described method, the scraped waste toner is transferred passively to the waste toner collecting portion as it is moved on the waste toner conveyance. Therefore, if a large amount of waste toner is generated on the surface of the photoconductive medium due to malfunction of the image forming apparatus based on printing errors, such as an inferior transfer or a paper jam, the waste toner is not transferred to the waste toner unit rapidly enough and as a result flows backward toward the scraper.